Cancer is a major worldwide public health problem. With the popularity of medical examinations, the improvement of
surgical procedures and the application of
antitumor drugs, the mortality rate of
cancer has declined in recent years, but the quantity remains extremely high. At the same time, with the emergence of
tumor drug resistance, it is particularly urgent to seek new and effective drugs for
tumor treatment.
Solanine, a type of steroidal
alkaloid, is the main extract of Solanum nigrum L. Because of its wide
biological activity, it has attracted increasing attention, specifically, towards the empirical study of its antitumor activity. This article summarizes the research progress of the antitumor effect and mechanism of
solanine over the past 20 years, to provide a reference for workers in the field of
cancer research. Studies from 2000 to 2020 were reviewed from PubMed, Springer Link and the Web of Science using the keywords Solanum nigrum L.,
solanine, α-
solanine, β-
solanine, γ-
solanine,
tumor,
cancer and their combinations. Exclude research articles of extraction mixture. Language is limited to English.
Solanine shows antitumor ability against different
tumors by targeting different
proteins. Although there is a lack of clinical large-scale studies, a large number of basic pharmacological and toxicological studies have confirmed that
solanine may be a new effective
cancer drug or adjuvant
therapy.
Solanine preparations and
solanine derivative preparations have broad economic and scientific research prospects.